Vacation

The 2nd (of 3) falls at Sipi Falls, 50 miles Northeast of Mbale, Uganda

We've been on vacation for the better part of the past 2 weeks, so I haven't been updating anything here. But I have been taking pictures, so I'll include some. But for a good rundown of the last week, once again, I'll refer you to my brother-in-law Brian's blog. His last few posts are a good account of what we've been doing on this vacation, so I thought why rehash what he's already written.
We left on Thursday July 24th for Mbale and Sipi falls for 1 night, then back to Jinja for 3 nights. While in Jinja we took a boat ride on the Nile, and also out to a village on the Lake where a Pastor who Brian had met ministers. They welcomed us in a little service in the church, which was attended primarily by people of all ages suffering with AIDS. It was touching and heartbreaking at the same time.
On Sunday, Brian and I went whitewater rafting on the Nile all day, while the rest of the crew took a family float trip that included only class 1 and 2 rapids. But all the boys (and parents) got to swim in the Nile. Meanwhile, Brian and I were risking our lives all day on class 3, 4 and 5 rapids. It was completely exhilarating, a mental and physical challenge that I definitely hope to do again before we leave.
Early Monday morning, we were picked up by the safari company and our lovable driver Farrouq ("Fa-Ruke") and headed for Northern Uganda. He was a very nice, Christian man who made our trip a lot of fun. From here, Brian's blog does a great job of telling the story so head over there.
But this was definitely the most amazing vacation our family has taken, though it was a ton of driving on bad roads. Uganda is a beautiful country and we've seen a sizeable chunk of it now. Before we joined up with Brian's family we took a 2-day trip to Sipi falls in Eastern Uganda, which was amazing. Since Brian wasn't there, these pictures don't appear on his blog so I'll include some here, as well as a few others from the Safari:

The Main falls at Sipi Falls

Viewing the 2nd Sipi Falls from a cave behind the falls

My favorite picture - a view from the cave of us viewing the falls

Dani and the boys inside the cave, exploring.

Alisha and the boys having lunch at the Crow's Nest lodge near Sipi Falls (in the background)

Walking through the village - we were like superstars. I swear I've seen pictures of Brad Pitt walking down this same road (with no more of a fantastic reaction than we received!).

Alisha and Jonah in one of our Safari vehicles

The boys in their safari hats, midway through the trek to see the Rhino.

Murchison Falls (on the Nile River) about 3 miles from the lodge where we stayed. The entire White Nile River is forced through a 20 ft chasm in the rocks as it careens 120 ft down.

Looking down from the top of Murchison Falls

From where I took this shot, the spray from the falls was like a steady rain.

One more shot of the gorge at Murchison Falls, this time from below - can you guess what my favorite part of the Safari was?

Alisha and Graysen on the Safari boat trip - we saw tons of Hippos and a few dozen Crocs.

A few of the Crocodiles, basking in the sun, even though it was cloudy.

Baboons are peculiar animals, and we saw hundreds of them all over the place inside the National Park. The ones near the lodge were used to people so we could get very close. If you look closely there are 4 in this picture - two little ones with their mom and dad. The mom is grooming the dad, something I've been trying unsuccessfully to get Alisha to do for me for years.

It took us two game drives to find them, but when we finally did, the lions were incredible. This is one of the cubs. It was amazing how unfazed they were by our presence, even though we were only 30 feet away. Not everyone sees the lions at Murchison Falls, so we were pretty excited that we did on day two.

Me comforting Dani on the Chimp trek through the rainforest. As you can see, she was clearly scared (haha). It poured rain on the trek but is was a lot of fun. We hiked 3 kilometers in to see the chimps, who were way up in the trees when we "saw" them. (It wasn't nighttime, just dark in the rainforest).